Creative writing has long been one of our most popular portfolios and so it is fitting that it now sees out first level 5 online course, Advanced Creative Writing. Essentially this is the next level on from the rest of our online courses, equivalent to the second year of an undergraduate degree rather than the first year. This course really does build on what has gone before, challenging students to take their writing to the next level and start to think about what might be really involved in getting published.

In contrast Animal Behaviour: An Introduction, is the first online course we have developed in biological sciences, but it won’t be our last. I am really pleased with this course, it mixes the hard science with a chance to look at and analyse the behaviour of animals around you (or online), and put theory into practice. I am not usually the sort of person to watch nature documentaries but even I found it fascinating, if you love animals I can only imagine you will love it. Lastly I have already been able to impress friends with facts I learnt in the course which has to be a good sign.

Who are the Celts? is a new course from Wendy Morrison who wrote out ever popular Archaeology in Practice. Like that course, this is another great addition to our Archaeology portfolio filled with fabulous images, resources, activities and more. I have learnt that the real Celts are not necessarily who you think they are, and this course will give you a chance to find out what this actually means.

Lastly our economics portfolio is definitely enhanced by Inequality and Labour Markets, a perennial economics topic which feels especially relevant at the moment. If you are interested in the issues around Inequality, this course will allow you to dig deeper than the news and discover the underlying theory that has led to current practice and some of the latest academic research on whether this is a good or bad thing.

Essentially all four of these are courses that would enhance anyone’s life to study for 10 weeks, just pick the one that really interests you, and if none of these quite whet your appetite do look at everything else available at on the Continuing education website.

While MOOCs have been hogging the headlines in recent years, many universities, including Oxford are continuing to produce open content in other forms, such as OER (open educations resources), podcasts, research and even the odd freely available course…

This has now been brought together through the new Open Spires home page, which also has 3 lovely videos explaining what this is all about. All of these have lots of Continuing Education goodness, featuring academics from the Department, those from other departments with whom we have developed online courses and OER with, and even me – possibly getting slightly over excited about the wonderfulness of Open. So to hear more about what Oxford and Continuing education are doing in the open sphere check out the videos below: